Fat bikes have seen a huge spike in interest the past few years in the moun- tain bike community. From rocks, sand
and snow, their huge 3- and 4-inch-wide tires
give riders the chance to float easily over
every type of terrain where normal mountain bikes would bog down. The problem is,
though, pushing those oversized wheels and
tires with only human power is a tall order.

That’s a lot of rubber to push.

This year we’ve seen several companies
latch on to the huge traction and supple-ride
benefits of the fat bikes, and add electric
motors to the mix, thereby removing the
main issue most riders have with fat bikes. If
you’re not solely responsible for the energy
to get those big wheels a turnin’, what reason do you have to not go big?

AT A GLANCE

While attending the recent Interbike trade
show in Las Vegas, we set out for the nearby
Bootleg Canyon to partake in the Outdoor
Demo, where hundreds of bikes of every
variety were being test-ridden by dealers,
journos and shop groms. And so it came as
no surprise to find a couple of fat e-bikes
running along the rough desert trails.

Of course, as big (no pun intended) as the
fat-bike industry has grown in the last few
years, we had yet to see the bikes evolve
into the world of pedal-assisted power. And
really, after cargo bikes, fat bikes are probably the one category of bikes where an extra
dose of power would always be useful.

FIRST LOOK

The most polished of the two bikes we
got close to was the aluminum Felt ChubE,
which was actually just a concept bike. In
talking to Felt product manager Brian Wilson
about the bike, he said that as the SoCal
bike company talked about entering the
fat-bike market, it occurred to them that the
most sensible approach would be to make
the bike an electric bike.

“Fat bikes aren’t known for their preciseriding traits, but we still wanted to make surethe bike handled as best as [it] could. Wespent plenty of time making sure the stan-dard fat bike was designed right, with thecorrect geometry, fork offset and front-cen-ter. We went with 4-inch tires for two rea-sons: to make sure the Q-factor was what wewanted, and since the bike is spec’d with an11-speed cluster, we wanted to make surethe chainline was workable.”Brian added that the bike was reallydesigned to be optimal for both dirt andpavement use and not specifically as a“snow bike,” as many people presumefrom looking at the oversized wheels. Andalthough the retail price isn’t fixed, he said itwould be close to the $6000 mark.

The bike uses the Bosch pedal-assist
unit, offering up to 350 watts and a max of
60NM. The battery life claims to last more
than 2 1⁄2 hours of real mountain bike riding
at maximum power-support level. On the
road, with road tires, Felt claims you can
go up to 70 miles. The Bosch unit weighs

6 pounds, and the battery takes 3 1⁄2 hours
to fully charge. The improved drive system
with more-powerful electronics and a low-vi-bration motor, as well as low volume and
weight, convinces the rider it’s capable of
hitting real mountain bike trails with ease.

The new cycle computer, Intuvia
Performance, is the nerve center of the bike
and features simple and intuitive operation
through the separate remote control mounted
to the handlebar. The optimized three-sensor
concept takes measurements 1000 times per
second, with maximum precision for optimal power tuning and a new, unique riding
experience. Switching between the five riding
modes, plus walk assistance, and looking up
information such as speed, charging state
and distance remaining on the current charge
is simple and easy to understand.

Even when removed from the e-bike,
Intuvia remains a useful informational tool